The police in Ghana have notified the public that they will be conducting a mass burial for 200 unidentified and unclaimed bodies

It is to start "by close of work this week", according to a statement released by Ghana's Police Service.

The move was aimed at clearing out the mortuary at the country’s police hospital, an official told the BBC.

The bodies, which have accumulated over the past six months, include victims of hit-and-run accidents and people who had died on the streets, Ghana Police Hospital official Yaw Nketta-Yeboah said.

They were also unidentified victims of crime and some who had died on admission to hospitals but who had been abandoned by their families, he added.

The police hospital urged members of the public to try contact its pathology department this week to help identify the bodies.

This was to prevent a situation where bodies would be wrongly earmarked for mass burial, it said.

The police hospital has periodically conducted mass burials for unclaimed bodies - despite burials being culturally important in the West African nation.